A Long Hard Look
by JE Boswell
Summary: Erin decides it's time to show Vlad exactly what he's become. The BBC owns Young Dracula and the characters. Edit: (I put something similar in the review bit) I understand that Erin may come across as blackmailing and murderous but I used that reasoning purely for the purpose of the story. Apologies for any offence caused.


Vlad sat in the training room his head in his hands. Everything was falling apart. His hope for peaceful co-existence, his family and now Erin. He wanted to talk to her but he knew there wasn't any point. She was set on biting. He heard footsteps enter the room and stop before him. He looked up from his broken down state and saw Erin holding a glass bowl. Her eyes were dark as she crossed the room and put the bowl down on the table.

"You might want to see this," she said.

Vlad watched and neared her cautiously. In Latin, she muttered a few words and the liquid in the bowl bubbled. He stood on the opposite side of the table and when Erin gestured for him to look inside, he dropped his gaze to the water.

The surface rippled and before his eyes images began to appear.

The first was a young Vlad, just five years old. He wore a cape, far too big for him and was running about with a teddy monkey in his hand.

"Daddy," he shouted in a squeaky voice. "Look at me Daddy! I'm a vampire!"

The image faded and time jumped. Vlad watched as his younger self attended school for the first time. He saw Robin and the Branaghs just as he remembered them before he left Stokely. He remembered how he was so intent on not becoming a vampire.

He watched as the picture blurred and then watched as he met Erin all over again. He felt tears stinging his eyes as he stared at the scene. Erin was laughing as they danced. He spun her under his arm and caught her after she stumbled a little. He heard the giggle echo around the room and tried to hold onto the sound for as long as he could.

The happy scene disappeared and he was left staring at himself.

"Take a long hard look," Erin spat. "The little boy running around in his Dad's cape, where has he gone? The Vlad that I met, where is he now? You're not a fair and just leader that our world needs. You're a dictator."

Vlad hadn't noticed but whilst she was talking she'd taken the bowl in her hands.

"I've changed," she continued. "You made me this way. I told you to let me die but you wouldn't listen. Is there anybody left you will listen to? No. That's because anybody who challenges you or doesn't live the way you want ends up dead." She threw the bowl to the floor and it smashed into hundreds of tiny pieces, water spilling out of its confines and drenching the floor.

"Just because you're the chosen one that does not give you the right to play god with people's lives. I'm sorry, Vlad, I really am. I never asked to be a vampire. I know you hate the fact that I go out biting breathers but what do you expect me to do? Follow a dictator?"

She moved around the table and stood in front of him. When she had his full attention again, she carried on.

"I've changed, Vlad and so have you. When I remember how we used to be it feels like a million years ago."

Vlad looked her in the eyes and noticed the tears threatening to fall. He thought that the way she'd been acting lately, she didn't feel the need to cry but he was wrong. She'd been feeling that all was lost too and when she was alone she'd let the tears fall.  
"Just because I've changed that doesn't mean I don't love you. I still do, Vlad. But I don't agree with the way you're going about your peace plan. Do you want people to stand by your side because they fear you? The Vlad I knew wanted people to stand by him because they believed in the cause."

"Erin, please," he spoke quietly waving his hand for her to stop.

"I'm still in here. The old Erin you knew but look at what happened to her. She ended up falling off a building at the mercy of a vampire. You promised you'd protect me or is that not the case anymore?"

Vlad stood and put his hands on her arms. He knew she'd throw him a look but he wasn't budging. "Erin, I will always protect you. That promise still stands. I just… I can't stand seeing you hate me."

"I don't hate you," Erin sighed. She didn't want to admit anything if she didn't have to but if Vlad didn't buck up his ideas soon, all of them would end up like Bertrand.

"Then why have you been biting breathers and defying me?"

"To deal with all of this and to show you that not everybody likes your idea but that doesn't mean that you should dust them. Everybody deserves a second chance right?"

Vlad looked down at the floor as if it would mysteriously show him the answers he needed but as he expected, it didn't.

"Do you remember telling me about your plan for peaceful co-existence?" she asked.

Vlad nodded.

"Did you ever think then that we'd become this?"

Guilt hit Vlad over and over. He didn't want to let Erin die but he didn't want her to go against him like she had. Whatever he did he would have lost.

She put her hand under his chin and tilted it up to look at her again.

"I'll stop biting," she said. "If you realise that what you've done is wrong. Dusting Bertrand, mind wiping the Slayers. It has to stop."

He searched her eyes for any sign that this was all a trick but he found none. Instead, staring back at him was the girl he'd first met after saving Ingrid. The girl who he loved dearly. He couldn't hold it in any longer and threw his arms around her. He didn't care if she'd push him away. He didn't care if she'd scream in his face he just wanted her back.

"I forgive you," she whispered softly.

He drew back, his eyes wide and what she'd just said. "Do you mean that?"

She nodded but her face remained stern. "Yes."

Vlad searched her mind for a moment and found that she was telling the truth.

"The moment you go back on your word and dust somebody because they won't do as they're told I'm back out there biting people. Understood?"

He gave a small nod and smiled. "Thank you."

"What for?" Erin asked.

"For showing me how much of an idiot I've been. I was blinded by my own cause and I stumbled on thinking it was the best thing to do. I should have closed my eyes for a moment and let myself see once they were open again."

"Hm, poetic."

"You know what I mean."

Erin nodded and held her hand out to him. "Should we go and sort all of this out then?"

Vlad took her hand and let her lead him away from the misery he'd been felling just ten minutes ago.


End file.
